Yorkshire Fly Fishing

..and this is surely the most limited pre-fishing holiday shop I’ve ever done. New leader, some Mini Muddlers (the only flies I don’t have the patience or skills to tie correctly) and some minicons which I find to be the best way of connecting fly line to leader.

This brings me onto the Wild Fishing Forum. I have a feeling that if I were to post this information on their forum I’d be told in no uncertain terms that Muddlers don’t work, Drennan leader is shyte, Roman Moser micro loops are actually damaging to the environment and my font is all wrong for I am deeply unpopular on there because I blog my Highland fishing trips in too much detail. Not everyone is so negative but there is a definite group of members who are very contraire. My preference for taking bottled water with me rather than risking drinking loch water was criticised, and taking a flask of tea a veritable sin! 🙂 Members of the forum go mountain biking, but anyone else who does is a thug tearing up the landscape. Someone PM’d me to say they felt I was being unfairly criticised on one thread but asked me to keep their support secret for fear of being banned from the forum. Deary me!

I get where they are coming from, they want to keep their favourite lochs secret, knowledge only passed on by word of mouth or through membership of the inner circle of their forum etc. But in my defence I have only named lochs in Assynt that are in Cathel’s book which can be bought from Amazon!! Many others I don’t name, or only give clues about. There’s also the small matter of the number one website about angling in Assynt which was put together to try publicise angling in the area and research benefits and impact on local economy. I don’t see them getting a barrage of criticism. Also, where did my friends and I get the idea to go to Assynt? From the Wild Fishing Forum of course! If preservation of these lochs really is so important then maybe the forum itself is a contributory factor in the increased popularity of angling in Assynt, popularity that drives members of the Wild Fishing Forum to despair.

Like I say, I’m not oblivious to the points they raise, and it’s made me think more about information release. Subsequent posts may be tightened up, more cryptic clues etc….we’ll see. Let me have your thoughts on this!